


you stayed

by rxginamills



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drarry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-23 17:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14337321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rxginamills/pseuds/rxginamills
Summary: It's over. It's all over and they see finally see each other again.





	you stayed

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to my beautiful girlfriend who loves this pairing with all her heart.

Harry found him outside the castle.

The Battle of Hogwarts was over. A wave of relief and anguish was released into the air; Harry could feel McGonagall's heart shatter every time she passed the body of a student she used to know. Everything outside the walls of Hogwarts was quiet and still. The world had stopped moving.

There he was. Slumped atop a large rock, his head pressed tightly in his hands. Harry recognized the shape of his body from a distance; the way his arms were so still and frail as if barely holding themselves together; his silver hair was shining under the setting sun like it did in the greatest, most beautiful dreams only.

Harry stopped a few feet behind him and watched him for a few seconds. He looked very small.

"You stayed."

Harry watched Draco turn around as if life had suddenly been injected into his veins. They stared into each other's eyes.

"I almost didn't."

Harry sat next to Draco. Their legs brushed together and he felt a rush of electricity flow through him.

"I know. You almost went with your parents. I saw you three walk out the gates. What happened?"

Draco scoffed, "I couldn't leave you here with those people so I convinced my parents to go without me. My mother cried her eyes out. They're probably halfway across the country by now." 

"You stayed."

"I stayed."

They sat in silence. The sun was setting in front of them, lighting up the sky like a technicolour fire.

"Your mother saved my life, you know."

"She did?"

"Yeah. She lied in Voldemort's face and told him I was dead. It wasn't even for my own sake because she doesn't care about me. Everything she did in the forest was for you. All she cared about was you."

Draco ran a hand through his hair. For a short moment his heart pulled in the direction his mother had walked in. Then it pulled back to the person sitting next to him. Draco looked at Harry.

"I thought - when he said you were dead - I really thought..."

Harry laced his fingers with Draco's and noticed that he was shaking.

"I'm pretty sure that the same thought went through everyone in that moment. I was pretty convincing - "

"Will you shut up, Potter?! Just shut up!" Draco yelled suddenly and jumped up from the rock. Harry stood up after him, surprised at his outburst.

"What's gone into you?" he exclaimed.

Draco came at him, pounding and beating at his chest with his hands. They kept switching between flat palms and fists. Harry was pushed back until he fell into a pile of autumn leaves covering the forest floor.

"I'm out there and I get told that you're dead - that the only reason why I hadn't abandoned everything is dead and you strut here and make jokes about it! 'Oh, I was pretty convincing!' How bloody stupid are you?"

Draco gave Harry a cold look; shattered pieces glued together with little effort.

"I'm terrified."

"What?"

Harry got up from the ground, "I'm terrified. I keep hearing these voices asking for help, I keep hearing him, I keep seeing Ron and Hermione hurt or worse. I know I ended it but I'm terrified that Voldemort will come back and take everything I love and my bad, dumb, idiotic humor is the only way to cope with it, to remind myself that you're there and you will be there in the future. I refuse to part from you again, okay? Will you get that through your thick head?"

Draco bursted into tears. Harry pulled him closer and they stood there for what seemed like an eternity (or two). His fingers dug into the torn fabric of Draco's clothes. Their chests were squeezed close together, almost trying to share the warmth of their bodies and melt into one. If someone had told Harry five years ago that the man he was holding would become the reason he fought to stay alive he would've laughed. Draco Malfoy? His sworn enemy? Ridiculous.

Then again, not so ridiculous. Something had drawn them together even when they didn't want to feel whatever they felt for each other. They refused to believe that it was happening; that their personal defeat had come.

Giving in to it was easier than they had thought.

"Draco, you stayed."

"I did, Harry. And I'm not going anywhere anymore."

They pulled back from their embrace and grabbed each other's hands like they were a safety link. Draco smirked softly and contently as he and Harry began making their way back to the castle.

"Stupid Potter."

"Shut up, Malfoy. You're going soft."


End file.
